CITY WORKS: RURAL NEEDS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXII, Issue 22166, 20 July 1935, Page 12

CITY WORKS: RURAL NEEDS

An unhealthy condition exists in New Zealand to-day, calling for immediate remedy. There are more men than jobs in the towns and more jobs than men in the country. This lack of balance in the labour market must be corrected if a country like New Zealand is not to suffer grave reactions. The towns will not flourish for long if the land, on which all depend, is starved. Yet it appears that, while tens of thousands of ablebodied men cling to relief work or sustenance in the towns, farmers in all parts of the country cannot obtain the help they need. Evidence of the fact is offered every morning in advertisements for farm hands. The demand is unsatisfied and the list lengthens. Yesterday morning 58 specific vacancies for one or more were made known, apart from the general call for hands made by several registry offices. In strong contrast was the announcement made in the same issue of the City Council's investigation of new employment avenues, involving the expenditure in the aggregate of £3,065,000 of borrowed money. Of, this amount a programme of works to cost £782,000 was adopted. Because the council endorses these schemes, it does not follow, of course, that they will be carried out. They have to be formulated in detail and submitted first to the Local Government Loans Board for its scrutiny and approval. If this stage is successfully passed, the ratepayers' sanction must next be obtained at a poll, and, finally, investors would have to be induced to subscribe the loan. If ratepayers are asked to pass judgment on the projects, they should not only examine the merits of each, but also keep in mind the fact that the council's motive is to provide employment in the city. They should ask themselves whether that is necessary when there is work offering in the country. In addition, they should ponder whether it is good policy, either in the local or the national sense, to bid and over-bid in the labour market against the vital need of the primary industry. The result is not merely to deter surplus urban labour from seeking the outlet offered in the country, but, what is worse, to attract into the cities from the farms many who could be productively engaged on the land. The effect in breeding further unemployment is cumulative for, as the deputy-chair-man of the Unemployment Board points out, the scarcity of hands induces farmers to install more machinery and so reduces permanently the market for labour. Thus the city palliative tends to produce the chronic condition which Mr. Bromley fears.